Something I once posted to a listserv in a fit of agony.
Hmmmm. . . advice, huh?
Murphy's law corollaries:
1) =======
a) If you throw away the cardboard box right after installation, you'll
soon find that the unit is inappropriate for your needs and must be
returned for credit. Without the box, it can't be returned for credit.
Management thinks you're an idiot.
b) If you save the box for a year, the unit will work fine, with no
glitches. Management thinks you're an idiot for keeping all those
boxes for a year.
2) =======
a) If you tighten each of 37 screws on an access panel as you insert
them, you'll find, at screw #35, that you must loosen screws 1 through
34 in order to get screws 35, 36 and 37 in.
b) If you put all the screws in half-way, then you just have to go
around a second time and tighten them - about 30% less work
than (2a).
3) =======
a) If you order your ISDN line with a due date of one day early, either:
1) telco won't make the due date, and you'll miss the remote, or
2) the ISDN line will have a provisioning error and won't work
with your codec and you'll miss the remote.
b) If you order your ISDN with a due date of a week early, and go out
with the equipment 5 days in advance (because telco didn't make the
due date), it will work fine every time. However, it will still not work
on the day of the remote, because somebody kicked a wire at the
demark the afternoon before, while installing a new phone in
another office in the same building.
c) If you go out _again_ the day before, early enough in the day that
telco can get a wire person out to fix a problem like (3B), you'll
never have a problem like (3B). Ever.
Summary) =======
The problem with Murphy's laws is a murky understanding of the
mechanisms at work. The equipment is aware, and the universe is
backward compliant. We control the actions of those who have
already acted by our own actions after the fact. The act of testing
the circuit 5 days in advance ensures that the telco techs _will_ set
all the dipswitches and program all the options correctly a week
earlier. Time is an illusion.
The idea is that we must show the universe that we give a damn
by actually putting enough effort into things to make sure they work.
The universe is cruel, and enjoys our frustration. It is _just_ as
frustrating to do all the extra work and _never have it be necessary_
as it is to _not_ do all the extra work and have things go wrong.
The only difference is that doing the extra work gets the job done.
70 hour weeks, anyone?
Why did I compose this diatribe? After 30 years doing
radio engineering, (ML1a) just got me yesterday. . . As Todd
sang, "Don't you every listen . . . don't you ever learn?!")